Tony Dapolito Recreation Center

The Tony Dapolito Recreation Center is a NYC Parks facility on Clarkson Street at Seventh Avenue South in the West Village, offering indoor and outdoor recreation programs for the surrounding community. The center is named for Tony Dapolito, a beloved West Village civic leader who ran a bakery on nearby Bleecker Street and devoted his life to neighborhood advocacy.

Dapolito served as an unofficial 'Mayor of Greenwich Village' for decades, organizing neighborhood events, advocating for park improvements, and connecting generations of Village residents through his tireless community engagement. He was known for his warm personality and his insistence that the Village remain a neighborhood for working people as well as the wealthy.

The recreation center houses an indoor swimming pool (one of the few public pools in Lower Manhattan), a gymnasium, fitness equipment, and program spaces for classes and community events. The outdoor area includes a small park and play space adjacent to the building.

The center's programming serves all ages, from children's swim lessons and youth sports to senior fitness classes and community meetings. Free or low-cost access ensures that recreation opportunities are available regardless of income, a particularly important function in a neighborhood where private gym memberships can cost hundreds of dollars per month.

The Tony Dapolito Recreation Center honors a man who embodied the best of neighborhood civic life: hands-on, generous, and rooted in the daily reality of the community. His namesake facility carries forward his belief that every neighborhood needs gathering places where people of all backgrounds can come together.